Sporting events, stage productions, banquets and wedding receptions are often recorded using video image capture. Such events are relatively long but consist of short segments that are of particular interest. Often, recordings made during such events include substantially more content than the short segments that are of particular interest. Recordings that include all of this content are not conveniently viewed and shared with others after the event. Accordingly, the content related to an event is typically processed by an editor after the event occurs. The editor reviews the content and reduces this content to create an output product such as a videotape, digital video disk, or photographic album that contains principally only coverage of preferred segments of the event. However, the process of manually reducing such content into an output product is time consuming and expensive.
One less time consuming and less expensive alternative is for a camera operator to limit the content that is captured at an event to include only preferred segments of the event. Thus the camera operator must actively edit the scene to carefully balance the need to reduce the volume of content captured against the risk of omitting preferred content. This, in turn, can prevent the camera operator from appearing in the captured content and participating in and enjoying the event. Further, this creates a risk that content that is of particular interest to certain observers may be unnecessarily omitted. Thus what is needed is an easier way to capture and produce an output product containing preferred event content.
The challenge of producing an output product from event related content is even more difficult where there are multiple sources of event content that must be integrated to form the output product. This problem has become more acute in recent years with the proliferation of relatively inexpensive capture devices such as analog and digital video cameras, digital still cameras and conventional cameras, which have caused a marked increase in content that is captured in an event. Thus, for many events, there is often a supply of uncoordinated event related content that is available for use in generating an output product. Here too it is necessary to use post production editing to properly combine content that is captured at an event by multiple cameras to form such an output product. This requires a substantial investment in labor.
The amount of labor required to form an output product from multiple media sources can be reduced using automated editing and content management software such as are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,407 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Manifesting Representations of Scheduled Elements in a Broadcast Environment”, filed Oct. 7, 1996, by Boetje et al. Using the system of the '407 patent, scheduled broadcast elements are organized and managed so as to facilitate the process of generating a broadcast such as a television evening news broadcast that incorporates content from various inputs including recorded content, live broadcast content and live local commentary. To accomplish this, the constituent portions of the broadcast are broken into elements. At least one corresponding material is specified for each broadcast element. At least one corresponding media that represents the corresponding material is also specified. The specifications are used to organize the content of the broadcast so that the broadcast can be made within predefined time limits despite variations that may occur in the duration of any segment. However, the system of the '407 patent, still requires the assistance of production and directing staffs to define, organize and assign a corresponding material and corresponding media to the elements.
A further need in the art is for a way to efficiently customize manually edited content such as a sports broadcast or a commemorative video to incorporate content that reflects the viewing interests of different event participants. For example, a wedding video may incorporate content of the groom's family and the bride's family. Certain relatives of the bride, for example, may have limited interest in content depicting the groom's family and a higher interest in content depicting the bride's family. The converse may also be true. However, while the cost of a videographer and video editor for the purpose of recording a wedding is typically willingly borne by a family, the cost of producing multiple versions of the same event that are adapted to the preferences of the various families remains prohibitive.
There have been attempts to permit automated production of output products that incorporate custom content. For example, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,147,200 entitled “Photofinishing System and Method for Automated Advanced Services Including Image and Associated Audio Data Processing” filed on Feb. 26, 1998 by Bell et al. provides a photofinishing system that automatically processes images from image related data in terms of image content in the content of non-image data associated with an image pursuant to customer output requests. Using this system, a plurality of image sources such as multiple rolls of film each having some content that is captured at a wedding can be processed to derive for example, a composite image composed of photographs of the wedding found on the rolls of film. Other forms of images and audio content can also be integrated to form other types of output. This system analyzes the content of the images and associated non-image data associated with the images and develops associations based on this analysis. The associations are then used to help form the requested output product. This system greatly reduces the amount of labor required to form an output from content recorded on separate media.
In another example, in U.S. Pub. No. US2001/0003846 A1 entitled “Encapsulated, Streaming Media Automation and Distribution System” filed on Dec. 1, 2000 by Rowe et al., a system and method are provided for creating programming content carried by a digital streaming media to a plurality of remote nodes located over a large geographic area to create customized broadcast programming at the remote nodes. The system permits a remote user to customize content that is to be incorporated into the broadcast of a primary video stream. This allows the primary data stream, such as a motor car race, to include interruptions and overlays that incorporate, for example, regional content such as weather, local news or local commercials. This however, does not permit the remote modification of the event content contained within the primary data stream.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to form an output product that incorporates event related content from a variety of sources in accordance with user preferences.